Fortunate Misfortune
by ranny12
Summary: Kathryn Waters, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, travels to the city of Calcutta in search of Bruce Banner. Set just before the Avengers. Bruce/OC More of a summary will be made as the story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

**_Fortunate Misfortune_**

**_Prologue-_**

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**"Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned" - Buddha**

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_"Fire at will." Barton's command came through her earpiece._

_Kat looked through her scope, the crosshairs finding the back of a balding head. She pulled the trigger without hesitation. The soft sound of the tranquilizer shooting from the gun was all that was heard. The next second, the man in her scope crumpled to the floor._

_"Target is down," Kat whispered, "I repeat: the target is down."_

_"Advance with caution." Barton replied._

_Kat motioned for her fellow agents to stay put as she lept stealthily down from the tree she was hidden in. She landed on the balls of her feet, shifting her weight towards her toes as she landed; no sound was made as she crouched low. She carefully slung her rifle over her back, drawing her pistol instead, as she crept towards the run-down house. As she crept closer to the house Barton spoke again._

_"Any signs of movement, Agent Waters?"_

_Kat peered cautiously through the window, it had one hole where her tranquilizer had gone through, and shook her head, "No. It's just him in there, Agent Barton."_

_"Good. You may proceed inside the house."_

_She crept to the wooden door to her left and darted inside the seemingly unimportant house. Her eyes shifted around the room; taking it all in. There were countless machines lining the walls that she would never have any hopes of understanding or working. There was a wall of cabinets to her left, one of the doors was open, and she could see numerous containers of a mysterious liquid inside. In the middle of the room was a chair that had, what, to her, looked like a rather large laser, pointing to it. Her eyes finally settled on the balding man laying face-down on the floor in the center of the room beside the chair. _

_She eased out of her defensive stance, and hurried over to him. She pressed two glove-less fingers to his throat; feeling satisfied at the steady pulse beneath her finger-pads. Kat set down her pistol to lift up the man by his underarms. She had dragged him just out of the doorway, when a small beeping sound caught her attention. __Kat furrowed her brow, and dropped the balding man unceremoniously in the dirt. She crept back inside the house-turned-laboratory, and searched for the sound. _

_"Agent Waters, what are you doing?" Barton's annoyed voice drifted through her ears._

_"I hear something." She hushed him._

_"Agent, whatever it is, it's none of our concern. Gather the target, and report back to-"_

_Kat reached up and jerked the earpiece out, silencing his nagging voice. Her eyes swept the room once more, and she crouched down to pick up her pistol. She spun in a slow circle in the middle of the room, ignoring the laser pointed in her direction. What the hell was making that beeping sound. If it was a bomb, she needed to deactivate it immediately so as not to draw attention to the house from the surrounding neighborhood. _

_She straightened out of her stance, her eyes sweeping ever corner of the lab. That's when she saw it: a device that was similar in shape to an alarm clock, but the numbers on it didn't tell the time. She furrowed her brow for a moment at the numbers that were counting down on the device._

_Her fingers hastily shoved her earpiece back in her ear as she spoke, "Barton! I think I found something!"_

_She watched as the numbers counted slowly down from five minutes. _Was _it a bomb?_

_"What, Agent?"_

_"Uhm- I'm not sure," she edged closer to the device, picking it up in her hands, "Maybe a bomb?"_

_"Well, deactivate it!" _

_She flipped the device over in her hands, and saw an opening. She dug her finger into the crack, and opened the back of the device. Wires upon wires tumbled out of the back, and she huffed impatiently. The numbers on the front now at four minutes._

_"There's a bunch of wires, Agent Barton. What do I do?"_

_There was a moment of tense silence, as she peered at the multi-colored wires before her._

_"Cut the green one." Fury's calm voice sounded in her ear._

_She stiffened slightly, having not been aware that Director Fury was on this mission. She shook it off, and returned her attention to the box. Kat's hands were eerily calm as she pulled a knife out of her utility belt, and spread the green wire taut. The numbers on the front read three minutes._

_Kat sliced the green wire. _

_She caught one last glimpse of the numbers on the front dropping rapidly to 0:00 before the laser in front of her went off. Her eyes shot up in surprise, and the bright green light of the laser was the last thing she saw before her world went black._

**_FIVE YEARS LATER_**

The raven-haired woman sat in the farthest corner of the beaten-up bus, drawing no attention to herself. Her clothes were baggy and dull, her hair long and ratty, and her face covered by an old baseball cap. She remained perfectly still as the bus bounced and shuddered across the barren road. The other passengers paid her no attention. She was merely part of the background, their eyes skimmed over her as if she wasn't even there.

If anyone had actually taken the time to look, they would have thought she was asleep: the perfect picture of serenity. Her head was propped against the cool window of the bus, her eyes closed, and her body seemed relaxed. They wouldn't have noticed the way her fists were clenched a little too tightly around the bag in her lap, or the uneven way her chest fell up and down. She was very much awake and aware of her surroundings.

She held her eyes shut as she focused on breathing: in, out, in, out. The bus swayed again, her head banging rather roughly against the window. A minor flash of irritation shot through her, but it became magnified to a feeling of rage. She gripped her bag tightly, her nails cutting into her palms. In, out, in, out. Her chest began to rise and fall more unevenly.

"Happy thoughts." She mumbled bitterly to herself.

An image of Peter Pan flashed through her mind, and she scoffed at her own childishness. But any thought was better than angry thoughts. She grasped onto the image of Peter Pan. His cartoon features, the russet color of his hair, the impish smirk, his little fairy, the green clothes. The green clothes. The green of Peter's shirt morphed into the piercing green ray of a laser, and she flinched violently backwards into her seat.

Her eyes snapped open, her dilated pupils contracting wildly as sunlight hit her face. She let out a shaky breath, and wiped her sweaty palms on her baggy, dirty jeans. Now was not the time for a flashback. She bit her lip as she realized how even her own _head_ was full of dangerous triggers. She cast her gaze around the bus. The wrinkled old men to her right playing chess with clearly overused pieces, the irritated mother in front of her clutching a whining baby to her chest, the group of tired, over-worked men at the front, and the few individuals in between.

Her gaze rested for a second on the tired men at the front, eyeing their dirty, tattered clothes, and the premature wrinkles around their eyes. Their skin was tan and leathery from working outside all the time. Her eyes dropped to her own skin that, was usually fair, had been burned to an ugly shade of red. She noticed the few patches of tanned skin that speckled her arms: a sign that her sunburn was healing, and a tan setting in instead.

_That's good, _she thought to herself, _a tan would help her blend in more easily in India._

The bus finally came to a shuddering stop, the engine wheezing a bit as it did so, and the woman snapped her attention to the window. The sight of her designated city drew her to her feet. She slung her bag over her back, and kept her head low as she exited the bus. She kept her eyes trained on her beat-up sneakers as the bus slowly pulled away, before glancing up anxiously at the city before her.

The streets were filled with cars that were foreign to her, the dirty roads lined with vendors and colorful buildings, and the streets thronged with countless people. The sound of beeping horns, loud voices, and barking dogs filled the street. She glanced to her left at the sign that marked the city.

**_Calcutta_**

She turned her head downwards, her hair falling like a curtain around her face, and a small smirk graced her lips as she took her first step into the new city.

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**AN-**

**So I noticed the lack of Bruce/OC fanfics out there, which upset me because I LOVE Bruce. I've always been a huge fan of the Hulk, and so yea, I decided to make my own fanfic. Sorry for any errors: I didn't check over it before posting.**

**Please leave a review. They inspire me to write more.**

**-Ranny**


	2. The Doctor

**_Fortunate Misfortune_**

_**The Doctor-**_

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**"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." - Mark Twain**

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Kat wandered the busy streets, her eyes peering cautiously from under the brim of her battered hat. The commotion around her was almost comforting; allowing her to blend in more easily with the crowd. Her eyes scanned the crowd around her as she wondered hopelessly how she would find one man in the midst of this chaos. She continued walking, the streets growing thinner and more calm as she carried on. The vendors to her sides grew more sparse and far between, and the looming buildings gradually shrunk in size. She paused as she came to the end of the paved road, and a dirt one continued in its path.

As she continued on down the dirt road, she looked curiously at the small houses that popped up every now and then. The sound of childish laughter reached her ears, and she walked a bit slower as she sought out the source of the sound. A group of young children giggled and squealed as they chased one another all over the roads. They seemed oblivious to the poverty around them: bright smiles adorning each of their dirt-streaked faces.

The sight made Kat's lips quirk upwards in a small smile. The sound of someone speaking to her made her jump, and realize that she'd come to a complete stop as she watched the children. She whirled around to see an older woman staring at her curiously with her hands on her hips. The woman spoke again in the foreign language, a frown deepening on her weathered face.

"Uh-" Kat frowned helplessly, "English?" The woman stared at her blankly, and Kat's eyes darted anxiously from side to side as she tried to remember a few words in Hindi or Bengali, "Um- _Āpani ki inrējī balatē pārēna_ (Do you speak English_)?_" she spoke in Bengali._  
_

The woman shook her head, eyeing Kat strangely. Kat's patience was already wearing thin as her mind scrambled for the right words in the foreign language.

"_Cikitsaka? __Amērikana__ c__ikitsaka__?_" She asked for the American doctor.

The woman's eyes scanned her, lingering on the battered shoes adorning her feet, before she pointed down the road. She spoke a few quick words. Kat recognized the words "American" and "house", and she smiled gratefully at the woman. Kat muttered a quick thank you, before heading in the direction the woman had pointed out.

As she walked further down the road, the number of houses lessened until there were none in sight, and the road ended. Kat huffed in frustration and bewilderment as she stared at the dead end before her. She clenched her fists tightly as a wave of irritation spread through her, her nostrils flaring slightly as she tried to calm herself down. Her head swiveled as she looked for any sign of a house; her eyes landing on what seemed to be a small footpath leading into the surrounding trees. She jogged over to it, and cautiously made her way down it.

She ducked under a few low-hanging branches, wiping away a few beads of sweat that dripped down the sides of her neck, and carried on for a few more minutes. Her eyes scanned the well-worn path beneath her feet, and she knew she must be heading in the right direction. Finally, the trees crowding the path grew more spread out, and a dingy looking house in the middle of a clearing came into view.

Kat stood at the end of the path as she gazed curiously at the remote house, flinching suddenly as memories of a similar isolated house filled her thoughts. She took one cautious step towards it, before jerking back into the confines of the trees as a light flickered on inside. She darted into the woods off the path, and circled around the clearing until she had a clear view into a window on the side of the house.

She could make out the silhouette of a man as it moved around inside. Nothing seemed to happen for a few minutes, but then the light went back out again, casting the clearing into shadows. Kat looked up at the sky, a few rays of sunlight still remaining in the setting sky, as she crawled behind a bush. She yanked off her cap, shoving it into her bag, and curled up on the ground. She rested her head on her bag, and turned her head to the side to watch the house.

After a few hours, the sun was gone and darkness settled over the house, her eyes began to droop. Her breathing slowed down, and she drifted off into an unpleasant sleep. Flashes of green and violent screams filled her head, causing her to toss and turn throughout the night. She eventually woke to the sound of a door closing, and bolted upright. Her eyes were wide and confused as she looked around at her surroundings. As the events of the previous day came to her, she relaxed slightly. She hated waking up to unfamiliar scenes everyday, but it was simply another thing she had to deal with.

Kat peered around the bush she'd hidden behind, as the sound of feet pattering against the ground drew her attention. A man with curly brown hair in loose khaki pants and a dark blue shirt slung a messenger bag over his shoulder, and continued walking away from his house. Kat scrambled to her feet, hauling her bag onto her back, and began to follow the man. She crouched behind trees, keeping a safe distance, as she hurried after him.

She followed him down the path, through the small village, and all the way into the main part of the city. There, he popped into a little building, that seemed to blend into the landscape, and disappeared from sight. Kat narrowed her eyes at the small shop the man had disappeared through, before walking nonchalantly to it. She paused, as if she were looking at the vendor in front of the shop, and peered into the windows. She scowled slightly as the blinds were closed, and all she saw was a muggy reflection of herself.

As the day wore on, Kat ambled around the market close to the shop, always keeping an eye on it in case the doctor came out. There seemed to be a constant flow of people entering and leaving the store, but none of them were the doctor. She stopped at a couple vendors to buy an old kameez, a type of clothing worn by the women in India, and some food. At midday, while Kat was sitting on some steps across the street from the shop, eating her lunch, the door opened again, and the doctor stepped out. Kat stiffened, and watched as he stopped at a vendor to buy food. Then, he turned, and came to sit on some stairs a few feet to her left.

Kat forced herself to relax and blend into the background, so as not to draw the doctor's attention. She mentally cursed herself as she realized she wasn't wearing her hat, and knew it would look suspicious if she pulled it out now. She settled for leaning her head forward so that her hair shielded her face from sight. She began to watch the doctor between the strands of her hair, and fiddled with the empty potato chips bag in her hand.

A few minutes passed, and Kat began to feel a little foolish for watching the doctor so intently. He seemed like a normal man. Maybe she had the wrong doctor. She frowned in disappointment at the negative thought before scoffing at the ridiculous idea. It had to be him. After all, how many American doctors were there in Calcutta? No. This had to be the right guy.

She narrowed her eyes as she watched him get up to go throw away his trash, and began to wonder how he remained so calm. He blended into the scenery with ease. Of course, she could blend in if she _tried_ hard enough, but he did it so effortlessly. He didn't seem tense or anxious like she was sometimes. She glanced down at her hands that always seemed to be clenched: an indication of her never-ending anxiety and nervousness. Kat snapped out of her thoughts and hurried to her feet to follow the doctor as he began to head down the street, back towards the village.

It seemed that he was visiting a few houses in the village, which lasted the rest of the afternoon, before he headed home for the day. She sat in the woods outside his house, watching as he made dinner, read a book, and went to sleep.

For the next week, Kat followed the doctor to his shop, waited outside until he came out, ate lunch, headed into the village for some house-runs, before going back home and going to sleep. His schedule seemed to follow the same patterns everyday, and everyday Kat became a little more worried that this might be the wrong man. There were never any moments where he seemed to get angry, anxious, or rattled. He was just a normal man, except for the fact that he really had no life, but that was beside the point.

After the ninth day of following the boring doctor, Kat had decided it was about time to leave Calcutta and search for _her_ doctor somewhere else. The next morning, she gathered her things, and left her spot behind the bush in the woods by the doctor's house. She wore the blue-green kameez, drawing the scarf over her head as she headed through the village and towards the city. She paused whenever she saw a clothesline to snatch a few clothes for herself, before hurrying away. Once in the city, she found the nearest bus station, and checked the schedule. The next bus left at 10:00, giving her two hours to kill.

She was running low on money, and decided to snatch some food. Kat wandered over to the busiest food vendor she saw, easing between the lines of yelling people, and snuck a couple apples into the sleeves of her dress. She repeated this process at a couple of vendors, before slinking away to snack on the stairs that had become her favorite spot over the past week. Kat had just sunk her teeth into a particularly green apple, when someone began shouting in Hindi.

Kat glanced up and realized the person was shouting at _her. _It was an older man with a bald head, and rather large pot-belly. The apron tied around his waist and the gloves on his hands made her realize it was a vendor. He marched up the stairs to her, wagging his finger in her face as he went. Kat scrambled to her feet, her eyes wide, as she tried to speak reason with the angry vendor.

"I'm sorry I don't speak Hindi that well!" She tried to communicate to him desperately.

But the angry look on his face, and the way his eyes kept darting to the pile of apples behind her was all the communication she needed to understand that he'd witnessed her stealing, and wasn't too happy about it. She turned to look at the apples, before giving him an innocent expression, trying her best to look lost and confused. The man wasn't buying her innocent act, and attempted to snatch the apple from her hand. She yanked her hand back, and took a step away from him.

"Hey! Back off!" She growled angrily.

The overweight vendor snatched at her wrist, and tugged her painfully down the stairs, before pushing her roughly into the street. She glared angrily up at him as he advanced on her once more.

She tried to remain calm as she threw up her hands as a sign of surrender, "Stop. _Rōka_," she said through gritted teeth, "I give up, here's your apple."

She handed him the apple, but he tossed it away angrily. He grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her, screaming relentlessly into her face. She flinched away from his bad breath, and shoved him off of her. Kat's eyes seemed to glint as she glared at the vendor, her hands shaking slightly, and her breathing picking up.

"Rōka," she tried telling him to stop once again, "Mujhē gus'sā (me angry)" she shook her head, "Acchā nahīṁ (not good)!"

He sneered at her, advancing on her again, but she darted out of his reach. She skidded around him, up the stairs, and slung her bag over her back, the apples scattering and bouncing down the stairs as she did so. The vendor started rushing up the stairs at her, and she hopped lithely over the railing to the stairs to her right. She rushed into the streets, hurrying away from the angry vendor, her heart pounding in her chest. Once she got a little ways down the street, she ducked behind another vendor's cart, and tried to calm herself down.

Her eyes began to water at the effort of suppressing her rapidly growing rage, her body shaking from the adrenaline, and her eyes clenched painfully shut. She began to count down from one hundred in her head, ignoring the sounds around her. That was until something snatched her by her shoulders and dragged her from behind the cart. Her eyes shot open, and she stared into the face of the angry vendor.

"Rōka! Rōka!" She pleaded, her voice raspy as she tried to control her racing heart, "I have money, I'll pay!"

The vendor shoved her backwards, her heel catching on the edge of the sidewalk, and she went sprawling backwards. Her arms stretched out behind her to catch her fall, her hands scraping against the pavement, and blood flowing to the surface. She felt her control slipping away, her eyesight going different shades of green, and her body shaking even harder. The vendor advanced on her again, and she knew it was over.

But someone jumped in front of her, their hands outstretched to stop the vendor as they spoke in a soothing voice to calm him down. Kat took the moment to draw a few shaky breaths threw her mouth, and thanked whatever greater being was out there for saving her ass. She pushed herself into a sitting position, hissing at the pain in her hands, as the person in front of her pulled out some money and handed it to the vendor. She forced herself to stare at the broken skin on her hands, so she wouldn't look up at the vendor and become angry again.

The person who just saved her ass turned and knelt down next to her. She looked up, and was startled to find herself face to face with the doctor she'd been stalking for the past week. She stared into his brown eyes as he spoke Hindi to her.

Her brow furrowed and she shook her head, "I speak English."

The doctor looked a little startled at her American accent, "Oh," he looked at her curiously for a second, before looking down at her hands, "Do you want me to take a look at that?"

She closed her hands, hiding the blood from him, "No. I'll be fine."

He offered her a small smile, "Really, it'll be no problem," he nodded down the street a bit, "My shop's right down there, I can clean that for you."

Kat looked up at him as he stood up and offered her a hand.

She hesitated for a moment, but took his hand anyway, "Make it quick, I have somewhere to be at 10:00."

The doctor rose an eyebrow at her as she straightened out her dress, "You know, the proper response to me saving you, and offering to help you would _usually _be something along the lines of," he pressed his lips together and shrugged, "_thank you_."

A hint of a smile crossed Kat's face before it returned to its usual stoic expression, "Thank you."

He nodded slightly, a grim smile passing over his face, before he gestured down the street, "Shall we?"

They turned and began walking towards his shop, Kat shooting him curious glances out of the corner of her eye, and the doctor returning them. They finally reached the store, and the doctor hesitated for a moment, before holding the door open for her. She almost laughed at the awkward look on his face, but decided to pretend like she hadn't seen it. She stepped inside, and looked around. It wasn't too impressive. There were a couple of plastic chairs lining the walls, and a small desk by the entrance where a pretty Indian woman sat. She looked up and smiled as the two walked through the door, greeting them in Hindi.

The doctor nodded politely at the Indian woman, and Kat noticed the way she smiled longingly at him. Kat raised her eyebrows in amusement at the doctor, smirking as a blush found its way to his face, and followed him to the back of the room. He opened a door, and led her inside. There was another small desk covered in papers, and a small cot for the patients she assumed. She stood there awkwardly for a moment, before hopping up on the cot. She laughed silently to herself, and the doctor raised an eyebrow questioningly.

She shook her head softly, "Nothing.. It's just.. The last time I was in a doctor's office things didn't turn out too great."

_Kat looked down as restraints were strapped around her ankles and wrists. She tugged against them, looking up in fear as the doctor loomed over her with a dangerously long needle. She tugged helplessly against the restraints, crying out in pain as the needle was plunged deep inside her body. The next thing she knew, her vision went green, and a violent yell of anger roared through the room._

"Miss?" Kat jerked out of her thoughts as the doctor peered into her face, "Are you feeling okay?"

She realized her heart was pounding from the memory, and her hands were twitching nervously.

She coughed awkwardly, "I'm fine," she then held out her hands, and grinned a little too brightly at the doctor, "So, doc, patch me up."

He raised an unamused eyebrow, before taking her hands gently in his, and began to dab them with alcohol. She grimaced a little in pain, but she'd dealt with worse, a _lot _worse.

"So," the doctor spoke, as he then began to wrap a bandage around her hands, "What's your name?"

Her eyes met his briefly, before he dropped his gaze back to her hands, "Jennifer."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Jennifer?"

She nodded, and he chuckled, "Okay, _Jennifer_, you're all set."

Kat jumped off the cot, flexing her hands experimentally, "You know," she said thoughtfully as she looked at her hands, "You didn't have to do this. I'm sure I could've dealt with a few minor scrapes."

"I know," the doctor wiped his hands on his dark pants, as he glanced over at the dark-haired woman, "But I was curious."

She looked over at him, her brow furrowing, "About what?"

He shrugged, a small smile tugging at his lips, "I wanted to get a closer look at who had been stalking me for the past nine days."

Kat's face went blank, and a small feeling of panic rose in her chest, "Oh?"

"Oh." The doctor smirked.

Kat looked anywhere but at the doctor, "Well, I should be on my way now."

The doctor crossed his arms and shook his head, "Hold up. Don't I get to know who you _really a_re? And why you've been following me to my work, and sleeping behind a bush in my backyard everynight?"

Kat stared down at her hands for a moment, her mind racing with a million different plausible lies, before she looked back up at him, "Okay," she bit her lip for a moment, "I thought you were someone else."

"Really?" he frowned, "Who?"

Kat shrugged, "A man named Bruce Banner."

His eyes widened for a moment, before his face returned to a nonchalant expression, "Bruce Banner?" Kat nodded, "Why were you looking for him?"

Kat shrugged, "Does it matter? It's not like you know him anyways."

He pressed his lips together, looking down at his shoes in thought, "Actually," he met her gaze again, "I do know him."

Kat raised an eyebrow, "Do you know where I can find him?"

The man smiled grimly for a moment, "If you tell me why you're looking for him, I might tell you where he is."

She searched his face for any signs of deceit, "Okay. I need his help."

"With?"

She smiled bitterly, "I have-" she sighed, shaking her head slightly, before meeting his eyes again, "I have a bit of an anger problem. And I was hoping he might be able to help me out with it."

A small, amused smile began to slowly spread across his face, "An anger problem?" again, she nodded, "And what makes you think he can help you?"

"Well," she smirked, "I hear he's excellent at anger-management. I'm sure he could teach me a few tricks."

The doctor studied her face for a long moment, long enough for Kat to feel awkward, before he nodded and turned. He paced to the other side of the room, stared out of a window, and glanced back at her with a strange look in his eye.

She watched as he made his way back over to her, "What's your name."

"I already said it's Jenn-"

"Your _real_ name."

There was a beat of silence as they stared each other down, finally, she cocked her head to the side and looked at him curiously, "Kat."

"Cat?"

She rolled her eyes, "It's short for Kathryn. With a 'K'."

An amused smile tugged at the corners of his lips, and he stuck out his hand. She looked down at it, then back up at him questioningly.

Finally, she placed her hand in his, and he shook it as he spoke, "It's nice to meet you Kathryn. I'm Bruce Banner."

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**AN-**

**So I feel like that was a terrible chapter, and it dragged on and was really boring. And I also thought the ending was really cheesy, but _hey_ I actually updated twice in two days. That's a record for me. But it's not gonna be a regular thing, I do have a life.. sort of.**

**Let me know what you liked, or didn't like.**

**-Ranny**


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